Good Sunday afternoon y'all. I am sitting here relaxing today for awhile. I think I deserve it after working so hard yesterday. I got quite a bit done, yes I sure did. There is always more to do than can be done, especially in one day, but I did manage to do a pretty good bit.

The first order of business was to get everyone fed early so that I could work in peace. With that out of the way I toted all the heavy duty tarps I have been collecting from the weekly trips to Walmart outside. It is too expensive to buy them all at once so I buy one a week or maybe one every two weeks. These are the silver ones, not those flimsy blue ones. They have to be thick and strong to withstand the wind and weather that is to come soon.

The winds were out of the west and very strong all day so you can imagine how hard it was to work with the tarps. I managed though. I got the whole row of five pens covered nice and very neat looking. The ends need to be covered, but I will get to that. I recovered the grow pen which was a JOB in itself with the winds so strong. Once I got it covered I got fresh chick starter and fresh water in the peachicks dishes. I went over to the 'barn' and got all four peachicks from the pen they were housed in. They are just growing so fast and needed more space. I put them all in a carrier instead of trying to haul them by hand back and forth to the pen. I put the whole carrier inside the grow pen with the door to the carrier open so they could come out and explore their new and bigger pen at their leisure. It took a little while but eventually they came out. They were actually quite excited about thier new pen. They hopped and flapped, caught air under their wings and lifted easily off their feet. This should keep them through winter. If not I can always make it bigger without too much problem.

After I had finished the row of pens and the peafowl pen I set to covering the Sultans pen. This was getting to be hard work as I was really fighting the wind now. It was hard to place the eyelets of the tarp where they needed to be and strap them down. I got the top, backside and one side covered with the last 9 x 12 tarp. Now I am out except for small pieces left over from last year. Most pieces are not any good and they need to be thrown away because they have shredded badly on the edges or have holes ripped in them in places where the wind beat them against the chicken wire last year, rubbing holes.

I guess I come off as a mean old woman. There are some neighbors behind us that are just ignorant. I don't mean stupid, I mean they are the kind of people that really just don't know any better, and arent really willing to change their ignorance from what I can see. These are the neighbors we have always had trouble with in the DOG department. Always whatever DOG they happen to have, running loose, scouting the perimeter of my fence to try and get in, stealing my shoes, sticking its head through the wire barking at the emus and horse. This is the one that tore all the feathers out of Petes rear you may remember. Poor Pete still hasnt got much to speak of back there. Anyway, there were three kids running along the back of the fence, which is in fact the neighbors property. The smallest boy was yelling at the emus, screaming GIT OUTTA HERE and GO ON. Of course the emus don't scare like that, so it was no harm done. This boy was about five. There was also an older boy maybe about 9, then a girl, maybe about 11. I started to walk to the back fence and when I got within earshot I asked them if they would like to feed the emus (as opposed to screaming at them). The two oldest were very enthusiastic and were like YEAH YEAH! So I told them to stay right there and I would be right back. The emus love bread, it is a big treat for them. I had bought two big french loaves off the bread clearance rack at Walmart for 90 cents each for them so I took it out to the kids. They fed them and asked questions and I answered them just about as fast as they could ask them. The girl told me that her uncle said not to bother our animals as we might not like it and get mad. I told her that was not true. I told her as long as I am out here with them that they are welcome to look at them anytime and pet them if they come up to them. I told them all that as long as they are always nice and kind to my animals I don't mind at all. So I am sure they went back to the house and told him how they got to feed the emus. I am not a terrible neighbor. I just want my neighbors to be responsible dog owners.

As you can probably tell by now I didn't have the time to take pictures yesterday. It took me all day just to do what I did and then as it was getting dark I did manage to fill a few waterers. The time change is really going to affect my outside time, and its coming up in just seven days. Thats right. Next Sunday it will be time to turn back the clocks an hour.

My sister never did come over yesterday. I thought she may be too tired to be running here and there after being gone a week to Paris. I was right. It didnt help that her flight was delayed and she wasnt home until Saturday. Home, yeah, thats a tale in its own. Her 'home' is about to change, or so she says. We will see how that pans out. I thought she was supposed to be at her new 'home' straight back from Paris. What do I know.

Its finally warm outside so I am going to wish you all a good rest of your weekend and I am going to enjoy the rest of the day of cool temperatures and sunshine. I do have some preparations to make for tonight. It is going to dip into the 30s here and I need to put up a few heat lamps for my little ones so they don't get too cold and die. Phoenix and Clyde will have the comfort of indoors tonight. I will bring them inside, as will Sasha the screaming banshee of a cockateil. Heat lamps on the peachicks, and on the serama, and one for Rusty and Rudy too.

I havent even touched the laundry, dishes, house, or school planning for next week, but I will get to it, I always do. :)

I will see if I can't take some pictures, you should see those peachicks, they arent really chicks anymore.